


How Many Wrongs Make A Right

by Angry_Face



Category: RWBY
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempt at Humor, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Multi, Rosewick - Freeform, Slow Burn, Trash fire, What Have I Done, trash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-01-31 19:57:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12689175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angry_Face/pseuds/Angry_Face
Summary: Vale was at peace, there was almost no crime and everything was quiet. But team RWBY was still on edge, Ruby had been acting strange lately, and Yang was beginning to get suspicious of their young leader's sudden and numerous disappearances. What they discovered was much more than what they bargained for.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ever looked at a blazing trash fire that scorches the landscape and scars people mentally? That was me, I lit that fire. I have no regrets. Obviously, if don't like it you just keep walking, but if you want to see how far this rabbit hole goes, I'll lead the way!

Beacon academy was in a quiet lull since the starting of the new year. Yang was just sprawled across her bed with her limbs hanging over the edge, even though he Vytal festival was long gone, the sensation of getting second place was still buzzing in the back of her mind. For whatever reason, her opponent's team for the first semi-final round suddenly had to go back to Mistral for an emergency, giving her a by. Ruby's friend Penny did well against Pyrrha but was still overcome in the end. The same could be said for Yang, who did better but was overwhelmed by Pyrrha's mastery over metal and her tournament experience.

Coming back from the break, Ruby was now sixteen, something that they celebrated with cheap beer and pizza back home with the family. When they came back for the new year in the spring, Weiss sent them a message that she had a surprise for them when they got back; the surprise was she actually bought real bunk beds while everyone was away, meaning their beds were no longer suspended with ropes or held up by books. How she managed to get them in and set up without anyone raising concern was beyond her.

It looked like it was going to be another quiet weekend, that was until Ruby's scroll went off with a text message. Raising her head, the blonde looked across the room to her younger sister's bed, where she was busy reading over the message she had just received. Another thing that changed since they came back from winter break was that Ruby had been disappearing for a weekend at least once a month. Lilac eyes watched as the younger woman typed a response and closed her scroll before cleaning up the books she had all around her since they were all studying. 

"Where you off to Rubes?" Yang asked with a smile as she saw Ruby pulling her boots on and wrapping the cloak around her neck after grabbing a bag out of her closet. 

"Over to Sapphi's," she said happily as she shouldered her bag and headed towards the door. Sapphi was always the excuse she used to leave; while Yang had her own group of friends she hung out with so she did not get the chance to meet all of Ruby's friends, but she could not remember anyone with that name. So instantly, Yang was suspicious. Was it a secret girlfriend or boyfriend? Or was she doing something worse on those weekends she disappeared? Yang, being the overprotective sister she was, decided that now she was going to find out. 

With one last reminder from Weiss that they had an exam coming up after the weekend, Ruby was off. Yang waited a few seconds before jumping out of her bed and landing on her feet with grace. "Where are you off to now?" Blake asked from the darkness of her bottom bunk. The dark-haired woman did not even look away from her book as she raised an eyebrow with her question. Yang grinned as she began to collect her things to take her bike into town. 

"Following Ruby," Yang said nonchalantly. 

"Aren't you being a little overbearing?" Blake asked as she placed her finger on the page so she did not lose her place as she finally looked over at her partner. 

"Come on, you guys had to have noticed this too? She's been leaving without much of an excuse and coming back just before lights out on the last day. Neither one of you think that's not just a little bit suspicious?" Yang asked as she looked at Blake and Weiss, who was busy sitting at the desk with her books open and already working on next week's assignments. 

"She's not a kid anymore, Yang. Let her have a little bit of private life to live herself," Weiss said as she turned in her seat and looked over at the blonde woman, "Maybe she's dating someone?"

Grabbing her keys, Yang grinned as she headed for the door. "Exactly!" When Weiss gave her a confused expression, Yang clarified. "Weiss, it is the noble duty of the older sibling to embarrass the younger sibling at any given opportunity,  _ especially _ in front of a potential partner." 

Weiss just rolled her eyes and went back to her studies. "Just don't burn the city down!"

"No promises!"

Taking her bike into the city was much faster than waiting for the airbus, so Yang managed to get to the landing platform before her younger sister and waited for her. Parking her bike nearby, she watched as the air vehicle landed and a large group of people got off, mostly students looking to spend their hard earned weekend in the city, Ruby included. Being discrete, Yang followed the red-cloaked younger woman down the sidewalks and streets of the bustling city before she went into the public rail building. 

The public rail was a train system that connected to several different stations throughout the city. It was a hub for people from all walks of life since it was pretty much a mall build around each station. Yang watched as Ruby made a beeline for the bathroom, and the older sister took this time to get herself a smoothie from one of the stands nearby. Finding a bench that was close enough to the bathrooms to snoop, Yang began to wonder why her little sister would go through all the trouble of hiding this from her.

Ruby and Yang had always shared everything, never keeping anything a secret from each other. Yang understood the need for Ruby to live her own life, that was why she was not doing anything until now. Whenever she brought up the subject, Ruby was always quick to dismiss it and change the subject. By now, Yang was just really curious about what she was doing, was it a girlfriend or a boyfriend? Yang did not mind, either way, it was her life to live with whoever she wants. It probably was not drugs, someone would have seen the red flags otherwise, so a significant other was the better answer. 

The hollow slurping of her drink broke through her thoughts as she inspected her cup. The dregs of her drink were refusing to enter her straw, creating the sound that was loud and obnoxious to everyone around her. Only when she opened the top and let the last drips enter her mouth did she realize that she had spent about half an hour sitting there and Ruby did not come out of the bathroom yet. Narrowing her eyes, Yang tossed her empty cup and walked towards the entrance. How hard was it to spot someone wearing a large red cloak? There was no way she slipped past her. 

With a quick check of the stalls and a few more minutes of waiting for those that were still inside, Yang confirmed that Ruby Rose had somehow given her the slip. It made no sense how could she disappear like that. Sure, she was not paying a hundred percent attention to looking for her, but no one would just miss someone wearing a large red cloak. With nothing else to go on, Yang made her way back to school and tried to get in contact with her, but only got a few text messages back that did not reveal anything.

\------

The next time Ruby went off for the weekend, Yang dragged Weiss with her, just to make sure. "Why am I here again?" Weiss asked as she sat next to Yang, her legs crossed and a nail file in hand. They were sitting on the same bench that Yang used when she lost Ruby last time, outside the bathroom that she went in. Yang was making sure she did not look away for more than a few seconds, just in case she gave her the slip again. 

"Because I need your help to track Ruby." Weiss just sighed, rolled her eyes and continued to file down her nails. Ten minutes came and went and neither one of them saw the woman in red exit the public bathroom. 

"This is ridiculous..." Weiss proclaimed as she got out of her seat and stormed towards the bathroom, Yang hot on her tail. Entering the woman's bathroom, there was only one stall that was locked and Weiss was tired of having her weekend wasted like this. With a not so gentle knock on the stall door, Weiss made her demands. "Ruby! Get out of there this instant!" The sound of a toilet quickly flushing filled the room as the two women waited for their leader to exit the stall. Only, when the door opened it was not Ruby at all. 

"Oh, sorry..." Yang said slowly as she got out of her way and gesture for her to move on. 

"Weirdos..." The stranger muttered as she washed her hands and left quickly, leaving the two of them looking at each other very confused. Somehow, Ruby had managed to sneak past both of them and now they stood in the bathroom, none the wiser. Yang's suspicions only grew and worry began to gnaw at her brain. What could be so bad that Ruby would go to such lengths as to not be followed? As the two of them began to make their way back to their dorm room, their plan for the next time began to take shape…

\------ 

Now was the third time that Yang was staking out the bathrooms at the station mall; next to her was Weiss who was paying close attention to everyone who entered the bathrooms, looking for any sign of their leader. Their newest member was not as happy. "Why am I here with you guys again?" Blake asked with a bored look on her face as she lazily stared out at the bathrooms. 

"Because we need to make sure Ruby is okay..." Yang said as she carefully studied each person's face as they entered and left. 

"Well, I could be reading right now..." 

Yang just reached down and held out a fish snack pack for the faunus woman, whose mood seemed to improve at just the sight of it. Opening the pack, she began to use the crackers more like a spoon rather than something to be eaten with the prepackaged tin of fish. "I'm sure if something wash wrong, she would tell ush," Blake said between cracker-fulls of tuna fish. 

"I know, but something just doesn't seem right about this..." 

"Outside of these weekend trips, nothing has really changed. Maybe she just needs some time for herself."

Yang knew that Blake had a point, but still did not like the fact that Ruby was keeping this completely from Yang. Just before Blake finished the last of her fish snack, she narrowed her eyes and began to stand up from her seat. "There, she's moving."

Yang and Weiss stood up quickly and tried to scan the crowd of people entering and leaving the bathroom area, but could not see her anywhere. But Blake was undeterred and began to walk towards the station platform, so Yang and Weiss quickly followed her. 

"Yellow hoodie," Blake said quietly as they walked quickly after their leader. Scanning the crowd, Yang saw the person with a large yellow hoodie with the hood drawn up over their face. On the person's back, was the bag that Ruby always took from her closet. At least now she understood how she had managed to slip past both herself and Weiss. They were both looking for a woman in a red cloak, not a bright yellow hoodie and light blue jeans. The more things that Ruby was doing to hid her identity, the more worried Yang became for her younger sister. 

Walking down the pathway towards the train platform, the trio of women walked past numerous shops and stands. Yang was paying so much attention to tracking Ruby, she did not see the person she just completely walked into. "Shit, sorry..." she quickly got out her apologies until she realized who she had just run into, "Jaune?"

The blond man just stood there with wide, blue eyes and looked at the three woman who stopped to look at him. "Hey, guys..." 

"What are you doing here?" Yang asked as she righted the boy. 

"Never mind that," Weiss interrupted as she pointed to his shirt, " _ what  _ are you wearing?"

Yang took notice of Jaune's black hoodie that had a large picture of cartoon rabbit printed right on the chest. Weiss was doing her best to stifle her laughter at the childish clothing he was wearing. In his hand was a small plastic bag filled with comics that were no doubt purchased from the comic book store that he had just walked out of. 

"What? It's pumpkin Pete!" Jaune proclaimed in his defence. 

"Guys, we're losing her," Blake reminded them. Looking past Jaune, Yang could see the bright yellow hoodie moving further and further away. 

"Losing who?" 

"Ruby. We're following her," Yang replied as she walked past the man. 

"Why would you  _ HURK- _ " Jaune's concerns were cut off when Yang reached out and grabbed his hood, pulling him along with the rest of the team. Following Ruby down a set of stairs to where the actual train platform was, they each paid for a train ticket and made sure they were far enough away from Ruby as to not be spotted. While they waited, Yang filled Jaune in as to why they were following their leader, and the concerns that she was having. 

"Wow, that seems pretty serious..." Jaune looked over at where Ruby was and narrowed his eyes, "she hasn't really said anything to me or my team about this, I thought we were all friends." 

"Well, I kind of want a little less to be friends with you now..." Blake mentioned as she gestured towards his shirt. 

"It's pumpkin Pete!" 

"Sure..." Blake smiled lightly as a train approached and Ruby began to get on. Everyone else quickly ran for the doors before they could close on another car, doing their best to avoid detection by the young leader.

While not as luxurious as the airbuses, it was not without comfort; soft, padded benches with random names or numbers carved into them and a number of advertisements that had bits of graffiti on them were comfortable enough despite their appalling appearances. When they arrived at a station, one of them would check to see if Ruby had gotten off; but after nearly a half an hour, none of them had seen her get off. 

Yang was beginning to think that maybe she had given them all the slip again, but then she saw Ruby walk past the window near them when they stopped at the next station. Quickly piling out, they all kept their distance as Ruby walked off the platform, through the small station mall, and began to walk down the street. The area they were now in was nice, probably on the higher-end of the middle-class residential area. Each house had a large manicured lawn and the landscaping everywhere was green and well maintained. 

Turning a corner, they all moved across the street to where a large park with bushes lining the sidewalk was; giving them the cover they needed to keep spying on Ruby. Suddenly, Ruby turned and walked up to one of the houses. It looked like all the other houses in the area, large with a second floor, but nothing really stood out. Everyone kept their eyes on the young woman as she pulled the hood off her head, revealing that she was, in fact, Ruby Rose. Taking her headphones off, she ruffled her hair before giving the door two hard knocks and ringing the doorbell three times. Yang narrowed her eyes at her younger sister as she watched her using some secret code at the door of a run-of-the-mill house in the middle of Vale.

When the door opened, Yang was shocked into stillness, her body refusing to move as a man opened the door. He was taller than Ruby, wearing a pair of dress pants and a loose, white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up above his elbows. His bright red-orange hair covered his right eye as he looked down at Ruby. Ruby had just waked up to the house of Roman Torchwick. What bewildered her more was the fact that the criminal took a step back to welcome Ruby into his home before closing the door behind her. 

"What is Roman Torchwick doing here?" Blake asked as they all kept staring at the house Ruby entered. 

"And why is Ruby going to see him?" Weiss added on.

A fire was building inside of Yang as dots were beginning to connect and ideas she really did not like began to play out in her mind. Beside her, Blake masterfully ran up a tree and began to spy into the second story window. "They just entered a room," Blake relayed to the rest of the team, "I don't know what they're saying. It’s mostly Roman talking and Ruby's just nodding- She's taking her hoodie off. He's taking his shirt off.."

Yang had heard enough. Sprinting out of the cover of the bush, she ran straight up to the house with her teammates and Jaune hot on her heels. With all of her momentum, she lifted her foot up and kicked in the front door with ease. 

Inside, the house looked well lived in and tidy, with everything in its place as the team ran into the living room, where a familiar woman was on her feet and staring at them with shock in her pink and brown eyes.

"Go, I got her!" Blake shouted as she charged the smaller woman. Yang took this chance to sprint up the stairs to find her targets, where she bashed open the only door that was closed. Roman Torchwick was laying on his stomach across the bed without a shirt. Ruby was straddling his torso while facing towards his legs with a large scroll in her hands. She was wearing only wearing a blank tank-top and some blue jeans. "Yang?" 

"MOVE!"

Everyone was shouting now as Ruby was thrown off the man by Yang. Yang could not hear anything other than her own rage as she picked Torchwick off the bed and slammed her fist into his face. He tried to fight back, but Yang managed to duck under a wild haymaker and knee him in the stomach, doubling him over. The blonde brawler reached above her head with both hands and laced her fingers together and brought her fists down hard on his back, dropping him to the ground as he yelled in pain. 

But then he kept yelling and screaming as his legs began to thrash and jerk in every direction. Shocked, Yang took a step back, unsure what she had just done.

"Roman!" Ruby shouted, bringing Yang back to reality. The younger Huntress knelt down next to the screaming man as she began to flip onto his stomach and touched his back, looking for something. "What did you do?!" she shouted at Yang. The woman just shook her head as the pink, brown, and white themed girl slipped past Jaune and Weiss at the door and knelt down next to the screaming man. 

Looking behind her, she saw Blake rushing towards them, a small trail of blood coming from a busted lip. "DAMN IT!" Yang looked back to see Ruby trying to do something on the large scroll before throwing it onto the bed. "I can’t access it wirelessly. I need to get it out of him. We need the table." The smaller woman nodded and pointed at Jaune. Quickly realizing what she wanted, he rushed to Roman’s side and lifted his body. Roman was still jerking wildly but he seemed to be trying his best not to scream out. "Move!" Ruby commanded, and everyone got out of her way. Yang had never seen her like this before, it was actually pretty scary. 

The two smaller women led Jaune as he carried the body down the stairs where they threw everything off the kitchen table and turned on all the lights. Everyone else quickly followed and saw the two of them preparing several things at once. Ruby pulled rubber gloves over her hands and straddled Torchwick's torso again. Neo handed her a scalpel and Ruby leaned down to begin cutting into his lower back. Everyone watched as Ruby sliced and opened flesh like a natural before tossing the sharp blade aside to accept a small power drill from Neo and shoved the weapon into Torchwick's back. 

Yang could not see what Ruby was doing from where they stood; but eventually, Ruby set the tool aside, grabbed a screwdriver, and began to try and pry something out of him, prompting the man to start screaming out louder. With one last yank from the girl on top of him, his body went limp and he groaned out in relief. Ruby sighed as she tossed the bloodied tool to the side and pulled something out of his back. From where Yang stood, it looked like a silver beetle the size of her hand. It had blinking lights and legs to grip onto something. 

Ruby was looking over the object with a careful eye before shaking her head and looking to Neo, "I should be able to fix this..." She sighed as she looked at the rest of the team, who stood in shocked silence after watching an emergency operation happening in the kitchen. "What are you guys doing here?" Ruby asked finally. 

"What are we doing here? What are  _ you _ doing here?" Yang asked as she pointed a finger at her younger sister. 

"Ah-uh-I-I asked you first! and I'm the leader!" Ruby stumbled over her words as she pointed the bloody screwdriver at them. 

"You were disappearing for entire weekends! Whenever I asked what you were doing, you were lying to me! Then I follow you and I find  _ this?  _ Just what the hell is this?" 

Yang saw Ruby chewing on her tongue as she looked around the house like she was only now really looking at what she had been doing. "It's...complicated," was what she settled for. 

"Try me..." Yang folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at her younger sister.

Ruby sighed as she slipped off of Torchwick and the table. Reaching out for a cloth from the sink, she wet it and began to clean the device she pulled from his back. 

"This whole thing started last year when I did this to him..." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am Rosewick trash. 
> 
> I love these off pairings. Like, I really like any pairing, but I absolutely love those pairings that are taboo and most people just ignore. So bring me your rare pairs, your crack ships and your trash pairings, I'll love them!
> 
> This was just an idea I was playing with a while ago and thought it might be a fun story for people to read. I do have one more chapter thought up as well as future pairings and side stories to explore as well. If people like it, I'll continue it after that!
> 
> A big thanks to StreetAngelJ for editing and helping me come up with some ideas for this flaming pile of trash ships!
> 
> If you enjoyed, please leave a Kudo! If you already have, leave a comment! I love reading them and I love replying to them. I also have a Tumblr (AngryFaceWritings) So if you're int he area, come say hi! This story is also posted on FF.net under the same name, so if you read there as well, come show your support!
> 
> And as always, thank you for taking time out of your busy days to read my trash.


	2. Chapter 2

Fat snowflakes floated lazily to the ground, highlighted by the streetlights that carved into the night, illuminating the paths that winter had laid claim to. Ruby loved this time of the year, after her birthday and after Mid-winter festival, where winter was staying around for just a little bit longer. Reaching out with her hand, the young woman let a few of the large clumps of snow flutter into her hand before melting away from her body heat. Her red cloak was all she needed to keep the cold at bay while she explored the city at early night.

Ruby was in Vale doing some shopping. Her birthday and Mid-winter gifts had given her a number of gift-cards and Lien cards, and she was planning on spending a few tonight. She had come alone, for no matter how much she loved her sister and her father, when the two of them go after each other in a joke war, Ruby needed to leave, lest she be the first casualty. Her boots left large imprints in the freshly fallen snow, the gentle crunches filled the night as she bobbed her head to the sound of music pumping through her headset. She was eager to start shopping, getting things ready for her second year at Beacon.

Walking down the street, she was heading towards her first stop on her small shopping spree when she heard someone cry out in between the silence where one song ended and the next began. Stopping, Ruby peered down an alleyway and pulled her headphones from her head. She waited a few seconds, just to make sure she was not imagining it, only to have her suspicions confirmed when she heard someone cry out in pain again and another voice yelling at them to be quiet in a voice that was far from nice. 

Slipping her headphones off her head, she folded them and slipped them into a pouch before taking careful steps towards the source of the sounds. As she got closer, she heard the fight was ramping up. The sound of something flying through the air and hitting something soft made her flinch and speed up. Rounding a corner, she came face to face with the scene that was being played out in front of her. One man was on his knees, holding his head. In his other hand was one of the straps of a backpack, the other strap was in the hand of none other than Roman Torchwick.

The criminal mastermind was fighting the man for the bag. His other hand was raised, his cane in his hand. Just before he brought it down to hit the man again, Ruby caught their attention. "Torchwick!" The man froze and looked up, his bowler hat had a layer of snow collecting along the brim. Green eyes locked with silver and his face dropped from anger to annoyance. 

"You have  _ got  _ to be kidding me!" He cried out as he quickly pointed at her with the end of his weapon. "I haven't had a good hit in months, then the first half decent haul I get, you come running up to ruin it. Wadda say Red? Turn the other cheek and let me go? 'tis the season, after all."

"Not a chance." 

"Yeah, that's what I thought..." The tip of his weapon popped open to reveal a crosshair and Ruby only had a second to jump out of the way before a large fireball was shot at her. Rolling to her feet, Ruby quickly looked around and saw the criminal was running away from her. She took a few seconds to make sure the victim was not hurt too badly before chasing after Torchwick. As she reached the edge of the alley, she caught a quick glimpse of the man darting into another alleyway across the street. As she gave chase, Ruby pulled her scroll out and opened it up. 

Just before she could hit Yang's contact to call for backup, her screen flickered and faded away. Trying to pay attention to where Torchwick was heading and trying to troubleshoot her scroll turned out to be harder than previously thought as she crashed into a trash bin that the man had thrown at her, trying to slow her down. With one last check at her scroll, she saw an empty battery icon flash before fading. Her scroll was dead, she was in this alone. 

"No backup, and only a few rounds on me. That's fine, this is fine," Ruby tried to reassure herself as she slipped the device back into her pocket and concentrated wholly on chasing her prey. Even though she lost track of Torchwick, it was not hard to follow his footprints and the lowered fire escape ladder up to the rooftops. Launching herself to the top, she saw the man jumping across the gaps between buildings, making his way towards the industrial area of the city. 

Having to limit her speed to avoid slipping on the snow and falling to the ground below, Ruby was constantly behind her target. Torchwick slowed her down further by taking time to turn around and fire at her, forcing her to block and dodge out of the way. They continued their game of cat and mouse until they hit the outskirts of the city. Ruby was beginning to feel the burn in her legs as the night continued to get colder the longer this went on. 

Arriving at a large lip of a quarry, Ruby saw Roman aim to the sky and launch a bright shot into the night. Ruby knew a signal flare when she saw one. He was planning his escape again, and the Huntress-in-training refused to let him get away this time. Charging forward, scythe met cane as Torchwick met her attack with a block. "You really are persistent, Red. I'll give you that!" Before she could respond, he brought his foot up and kicked her in the stomach, knocking her back.

Before he could capitalise on it, however, Ruby fired a round behind her and shot off to the side, only for her to stick her scythe into the ground and shift the momentum suddenly in order to give the man a dropkick with both her feet. They tumbled together across the snow-covered ground, but before Ruby could get up, pain rocked through her head and her vision blurred with a ringing in her ears. Another foot connected to her side and she was kicked away from Torchwick as he got to his feet. 

Stalking his way towards her, his face twisted in rage as snow clung to his red hair, he raised his arm up to hit her again with his weapon; only for Ruby to spin around on her back and raise her weapon as quickly as she could. Blindly firing, she clipped his shoulder and he cried out in pain as he held his wound. Ruby could see the faint glimmer of his Aura, bright orange in colour, flashing around his body. Quickly getting to her feet, she aimed at him while he was inspecting damages to his arm, only to be greeted with the muzzle of Crescent Rose. "It's the end of the line, Torchwick!" Ruby shouted, trying to clear the ringing in her ears. 

For a brief moment, he looked like he was about to press his luck and try to attack her again, but it came as quickly as it went. With a huff, he took a slow step back and looked behind himself. She had him with his back to the large of the large hole that made up the quarry. Looking back at her, the lone emerald eye met silver, she stared him down with her finger on the trigger. Suddenly, he looked behind her and a small smile creep across his face. Before she could figure out why she was blinded by a bright light. 

With her distracted, the criminal took his chance and slammed his cane into her mouth knocking her away once again. "Well Red, it's been fun!" He shouted over the engines of a bullhead. "But, I'm a busy man. Places to rob, people to blackmail, you know how it is. Ta-ta!" Ruby pulled herself up and watched as the bullhead pulled into the hole and levelled out so Torchwick could get on. He took a few steps back and made a quick sprint to the door and was about to jump over the gap when Ruby quickly got up and pulled her weapon to bear. 

She followed his movements and took careful aim. Just before he got to the lip, Ruby remembered the bright orange of his Aura flaring, meaning if she fired her weapon at him now, he could die. She wanted to catch him, not kill him. Quickly, she adjusted her aim and fired. Just as the man got to the lip of the quarry, he went to push off, but Ruby's shot flew true and impacted out the ground just where his foot was. All his momentum was lost and he cried out as he fell into the pit. 

The woman in the cockpit of the air vehicle slammed her hand on the window and stared out wide-eyed, trying to look down to see where her partner had disappeared to. Ruby recognised her as the woman who was with him last year in Vale; with her pink, brown, and white hair and her two-tone eyes. Aiming quickly, she fired more rounds at the getaway vehicle, forcing her to retreat and leave her partner. When the bullhead was far enough away, Ruby quickly rushed to the edge of the pit and peered down, she saw the silhouette of the man at the bottom and prayed to whoever would listen that he was still breathing. 

Taking her time to make her way down into the quarry, she hit the bottom without any problems and quickly found the person she was looking for. He was laying on his back, his hat missing from his head. She could see his single eye, staring up at the night sky above them. Ruby held her breath as she made her way towards him. "Hello Red," his voice cut through the silence and made her jump. If he was talking, that meant he was alive. With a sigh of relief, she approached him more calmly and looked at him. His voice was oddly calm if a little bored.

He was laying on his back with his hands resting on his stomach, almost like he was just relaxing and staring off into space. "Finally giving up, Torchwick?" 

"Don't worry, Red. I don't think I'm running anytime soon..."

Ruby nodded as she looked around. She was sure someone heard all that commotion, or at the least the person he was trying to rob earlier probably called the authorities, so it would only be a matter of time before they showed up to take him away. "I know you're scared, but if you just work with them, I'm sure you'll be in your cell before you know it." 

"I'm not scared of them, I'm scared of the fact that I can't feel my legs..."

Ruby looked at him and blinked a few times, trying to make sure she heard what he said. Taking a closer look at the man, she could see his legs were slightly bent in a way that just seemed wrong. She also saw his back was oddly raised. Crouching near him, she gently took his side and turned him over slowly. She heard him hiss in pain as he turned. When she finally saw what had happened, she could not stop a gasp of shock from leaving her mouth. 

His white coat was stained red with his blood. In the middle of the crimson blossom was a large stone embedded in his body, right where his spine was. "Well, it's about time..." Ruby quickly turned around, but all she saw was a blur of white, pink, and brown as something smacked her head and her whole world became black. 

When Ruby came to, she could still only see black, but now she could taste copper in her mouth. She tried to move around, but she could not move her arms or her legs. Panicking, she began to thrash around, trying to get her hands free. Suddenly, a pair of hands held her shoulders, stilling her movements. She felt something slip off her face, and she was blinded by light again. Slowly, she opened her eyes, adjusting from the pitch black to a bright world. 

Looking around, she was on the ground in a house, a nice one at that. Next to her, she saw the same woman as before, Torchwick's partner. Her face was dark, an umbrella was in her hand and she was staring down at her. Before Ruby could say anything, the woman gripped her by the arm and hoisted her to her feet. Despite Ruby's cries to wait and slow down, she was dragged through the house to a large open kitchen, where she was dropped onto hard tile floor. 

"Well well, look who's finally up." 

Looking up, she saw Torchwick laying on the table, looking over at her. With a rough hand, Ruby was pulled back to her feet by her red tinted hair. Crying out in pain, she was pushed against the counter and was held in place by a long blade that was pressed against her throat. Taking a better look around her, she saw Torchwick was in his underwear. Three men in black suits and red ties were standing around the table. One of them had some kind of large machine next to the table, the other had a set of prosthetic legs nearby. The last had a large power saw in hand and was currently lining up with black dotted lines along the criminal's thighs. 

"Just wait till I get back on my feet Red, you'll be the first to feel them as I stomp the life out of you. Neo, get her out of here until I'm ready."

The tri-coloured woman, Neo, nodded and grabbed Ruby roughly and began to pull her away. She was still looking at the scene in front of her when the pieces began to click together. They were trying to cut off Torchwick's legs and replacing them with robotic counterparts in the hopes to get his mobility back, but it was not going to work. 

"Wait!" Ruby tried to walk back to stop them, only to get punched in the gut by her captor. Falling to her knees, she heard the sound of the saw powering up and she knew she only had a few seconds to save him. Launching herself from her knees, she checked Neo to the side and ran back into the kitchen, her arms still bound behind her back. "Stop! That's not going to work!" Ruby shouted at them, making everyone jump at the sudden appearance. 

"Oh, for the love of- Get her out of here!" One of the goons came up to her and lifted her over his shoulder and began to walk away. 

"It's not his legs! It's his spine that's broken! The prosthetics will be useless if you do this!" 

"Hold on!" Everyone stopped what they were doing when the man on the table yelled out. The goon who was carrying her brought her back and stood her next to the table. Standing this close to Torchwick, she could see that he was pale and in pain. "Are you sure about that?" Ruby nodded. "Positive?" 

"I saw the rock in your spine, your bones probably got separated, that's why you lost use of your legs." The man mulled this over in his head for a few moments before reaching over to a plate that was holding medical tools and threw it at one of the black and red-clad goons. 

"IDIOTS!" His shout, combined with the sound of the plate smashing against the wall made Ruby flinch and duck, trying to avoid his fury. "Useless! The lot of you! Tell Junior I want a full refund on all this shit!" They began to scramble around the room, collecting their things to leave as soon as possible. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her cloak and dragged her closer to Torchwick. "You did this, Red. You fix this." His whisper was dangerous and cold, sending a chill down her own spine. 

"What, how?" 

"Either fix me, of I end you. Understand?" Ruby was silent for a few moments, the full situation was settling in her mind. She did the only thing she could do in this situation, she nodded. "Good, you have 'till the end of the week. Get busy." Neo grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the kitchen and up a set of stairs. She was shoved into a room, it was obvious it was a spare bedroom, complete with a simple bed and a desk. Suddenly, her hands were free from their bindings and she tried to rub feeling back into them when a scroll was presented in front of her face. 

**_"What do you need?"_ **

Ruby read the message and shook her head. Neo gave her a dark look and pointed the tip of her blade right at her throat before pushing the scroll back into her face, the message was clear. Ruby was not a doctor, she could not repair the damage done like a professional could, she did not have the slightest idea on how to fix Torchwick, let alone in two days. Scratching her head, she tried to wrap her head around everything that had just happened to her. The only thing she was good at was building machines and weapons, so that is what she would do. 

"Books on the human body, uh-paper, pens. A whiteboard and a scroll charger. We can figure it out more from there." Within an hour, the items she had requested were brought to her. Ruby quickly went to work by opening the medical books to the pages on everything related to the spine. The night continued on as she made notes, created a diagram on the whiteboard and circled the problem area. Hours passed as she created note after note about what she might need and what needed to happen. Before she knew it, her head became heavy and she rested it against the book before passing out completely. 

A loud crash woke her up; she groaned out when the sun hit her eyes and was blinded by the sudden light of morning. When she recovered, she saw a mug with black coffee inside of it next to her on the desk, and Neo standing nearby with her arms folded. "Thanks..." Ruby reached for the mug and took a sip. The bitterness attacked her tongue at once, and she did everything she could not to spit it back into the cup. After clearing her throat a few times, she looked up at her captor. "I don't suppose you have cream and sugar?" 

Neo responded with a death glare and nothing else. The younger woman decided to take what was given and not complain about it. Two quick finger snaps took her attention away as Neo held her scroll out in front of her. 

**_"Whats next?"_ **

Quickly, Ruby put her warm mug down and began to flip through the papers to an incomplete list she had made before passing out. Quickly reaching out, she was about to use her scroll to search up a material list when she saw something that made her stomach drop. Seventeen missed calls and thirty-five text messages, all of them from Yang and her father. In her moment of crisis, she had forgotten about her family and the fact that she never came home last night. She was about to go through the messages when her scroll began to chime, signalling an incoming call. 

Yang's face appeared on the front and she looked at Neo, who stood by with a raised eyebrow. "Trust me, if I don't answer it, she'll tear down the city looking for me." The woman just narrowed her eyes and nodded. She slowly pulled her umbrella to her side and slowly slipped the blade out. The threat was there, all Ruby had to do was answer it. Hitting the flashing green button, she prepared for the torrent of overprotectiveness and made up her answers. 

_ "Ruby! Where have you been! We've been calling out for hours!"  _ Ruby smiled slightly as she heard Yang's voice coming out of the speaker. 

"Sorry! I've been really busy..."

_ "Too busy to call your family?! Where are you right now?"  _

Ruby looked up at Neo, who was still standing nearby, ready to kill her if she spoke too much. "I'm at a friend's house..."

_ "Who?" _

"uh...Sapphi!" Ruby hated lying to anyone, but as it stood, it was the only way right now. "You remember Sapphi from Signal, right?" 

There was a long pause from Yang on her side before she spoke again.  _ "No, I don't..."  _

"Oh, well, I met her last night when I was in Vale, and we hung out a bit and I lost track of time and I didn't notice that my scroll died. I was asleep when you guys were calling, so I didn't hear it. I'm really sorry Yang." 

_ "It's okay, Rubes."  _ She bought it.  _ "We were really worried about you." _

"I know, I'm sorry." 

_ "It's fine. When are you coming home?" _

"Uh...at the end of the weekend, we were going to go out and hang out with the rest of the gang. I really missed everyone here." 

" _ Okay, just don't disappear like that again, 'kay?"  _

"I won't, I promise." Even as the words left her mouth, the promise was broken as it was spoken if she did not fix Torchwick. "I love you, sis."

_ "Love you too, sis." _

"Pass it onto dad for me?"

_ "Of course." _

Ruby ended the call and sighed deeply. If everything goes completely wrong, and she dies, at least her family knows she loved them. Two quick finger snaps took her attention away from her family, Neo was still nearby, her blade now sheathed back in the umbrella. Back to what she needed to do, Ruby quickly used her scroll to look up metals, electrical components and a few other things she thought she needed. A plan formed in her head as she handed the list to the multicoloured woman who left to collect what she could. 

The young woman spent the whole day drawing up prototypes and testing connections. Her hands were bandaged and her cloak was tossed to the side. Her hair was tied into a small ponytail to stay out of her eyes as she soldered small bits of wire together to fit inside of what she was making. As night fell, Ruby had to make do with a simple shape since she did not have access to a forge or moulds. Hours were spent checking and double checking her theory against what she had made. By the time midnight rolled around, she either had her salvation or damnation in the palm of her hand.

By the time she came up to Torchwick, he was laying on his stomach with the kitchen lights aimed at his back, lighting up the damage done. "So, what do you have?" he asked her.

Ruby presented the palm-sized object she had created. It had four arms to latch onto the spine with two large prongs sticking out at the top and the bottom. "This. It's designed to latch onto your spine and form a bridge over the broken lumbar vertebrae to connect electrical signals from your brain." Ruby explained the device she had created in only two days time. The man nodded at her explanation and she continued. "It just connects over the broken bone, and it should work. I left the blueprints and notes here for your surgeon if he doesn't know what to do." 

"What are you talking about Red? You're the one who's doing it." 

"What?"

"You made it, you should know how to put it in,"

"I'm not a doctor! I can't just go into your back and do this!" 

"Neo!" 

Behind Ruby, she saw his partner walk up to her, long blade in hand and ready to strike. Looking down at the device in her hand, Ruby shook her head and took a deep breath. "Fine..." The woman put her weapon away and nodded. Ruby set the device on the table and rolled her sleeves up to her elbows before pulling on a pair of medical gloves that Neo gave her. Walking up to his body, she took a scalpel and dragged it across the stitches, opening the wound to expose his spine. 

Luckily for her, it was not hard to find the broken bone and the rest of the spine. With him being on the table, it was hard for her to reach up into his back, so Ruby opted to get on top of him and sit on his back while facing towards his legs. Carefully, she placed the device where it needed to go and pressed the small button she installed. At once, it latched onto his spine and pressed itself to the bone. She knew it was working because the man under her began to cry out in pain. 

After a few seconds, he stopped yelling and let out a loud groan. Carefully, Ruby got off of him and walked around to his feet. Gently, she ran her finger down his foot and watched his toes twitch at the sensation and him trying to pull away from her. "Slowly..." Ruby warned him as he tried to get back up. Neo urged him back onto his stomach and stitched him shut before he began to make his way to a sitting position. Neo was there to help him as he tried to take a step off the table, using a chair to maintain his balance. 

"It'll probably take some getting used to, but it works..." Ruby could hardly believe that what she made actually worked the way it was supposed to on the first try. Torchwick nodded and stared her down. After a few moments, he nodded again and pointed to the door. 

"Thank you, now get out of here.”

She did not have to be told again before she rushed to collect her things and rushed out of the house. She was happy to be away from Roman Torchwick, but glad she could help him deep down. With a sigh, she quickly looked up where she was and made her way to the nearest public transport to bring her back home to her family. 

"Then, after about a month, I get a call saying that something went wrong. So I came back to fix it, then again and again. Every time I've been making upgrades to it, wireless battery charging, stainless steel body, smaller frame, and I come to update it whenever I need to, which works out to be about once a month. Takes a weekend to install and upgrade, then to make sure there are no bugs, then I go back to school." Ruby told the story of how this became part of her life as she was reinstalling the device back into its place. 

Her friends and sister had taken up places around the kitchen, Yang was standing in front of the table with her arms crossed, listening intently. Blake was leaning against the counter while Weiss hoisted herself onto it to sit. Jaune was just staring at her from another kitchen chair, not believing what he just heard. No one said anything for a long while as Ruby worked, when it was back in place, she turned it back on and the criminal cried out once more before relaxing, then Ruby got to work stitching him closed.

Out of the silence that followed, a single voice cut through it. Who it was surprised her. "Okay..." Jaune spoke with hesitation. "You guys aren't dating?" 

"WHAT!?!" Ruby panicked as she heard that, heat rushed to her face as she nearly jumped out of her skin with the assumption. In doing so, she accidentally pulled on the line currently in Torchwick's back, pulling his skin tight, causing him to yelp and slam his fist on the table to stem the pain. Quickly loosening the thread, she shook her head. "NO! Of course not! Why would you think that! He's like, ten years older than me!" 

"Gee, thanks..." She could hear the man below her roll his eyes.

"Well, there's that at least," Blake chimed in as she kicked herself off the counter and walked up to look at the man in the eyes. "And he hasn't hurt you at all?" That earned a bark of laughter from the man as Ruby got off of him and he slowly pulled himself to a sitting position.

"What could I possibly do? I could break that device if I sit down to take a shit too fast." 

"Language..." Ruby automatically chimed in. Everyone watched in shock as Torchwick was about to retort, but the younger woman gave him a glare and his voice never left his lips. Only a roll of his eye hinted at his displeasure. Finally, the one person she was fearing piped up. 

"Okay! Team talk! Jaune, watch him," Yang shouted out as she grabbed Ruby's hand and forcibly dragged her across the house, Weiss and Blake following behind. When they arrived in the study, Yang finally let her go and stared her down. Ruby could see the red in her sister’s eyes as she came dangerously close. "Okay, I get that you had to lie to me about it the first time, he had a knife to your throat. But every time afterwards you should have told me! Not only that, he's still here! He should be locked up by now Ruby!" 

Ruby looked back to see Weiss and Blake guarding the door, there was no escaping. "I know! I know! He's a bad guy, but he's not a  _ bad  _ guy! The only reason he was doing the things he did in Vale during the festival was because of Cinder."

"Cinder?" Weiss folded her arms with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah! She was paying him to do everything he was doing. She paid a lot for his work, but she bailed out before the main plan went through. From what he told me, it would have been ten times worse than The Breach! Cinder is working with the White Fang to try and bring down the kingdom!"

"How do you know all this?" Blake was beginning to get more involved in the conversation, now that the White Fang was mentioned. 

"He just tells me these things sometimes when I'm working. He also tells me about the local gangs and crime syndicates, and after a bit, I give an anonymous call to the authorities and things get handled..." 

Yang just blinked a few times as she pulled her scroll out. "It doesn't matter, he needs to go away..." Before Ruby could try and defend herself, a slender hand rested on Yang's, stopping her from completing the call. 

"Wait just a moment, Yang," Weiss began, "We could use this..." 

"What?!"

"Just think, you brute. If Torchwick is giving Ruby information on the local crime lords, then that's why the crime rate has been steadily decreasing, making Dust deliveries and other goods safer and cheaper for everyone."

"And with the information about the White Fang, we could defend both the Faunus and Human people from the extremists better." Blake was beginning to form plans of her own. 

"You've got to be kidding me! My sister could get hurt!"

"Yang," Ruby pulled her sister's attention back towards her, "If worse comes to worse, I installed a kill switch in the device I made for him, you triggered it by accident when you hit his back. And if it comes down to it, Neo will protect Roman over killing me." Yang shook her head as she looked over each of her teammates, not believing what she was hearing. "Yang, like I said, he's not a _ bad _ guy. He owns five low-income apartment buildings that families rent out for almost nothing. Massive unknown donations to orphanages are all from him. He's not bad, just misunderstood."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing..." 

"Yang, please... Just let me keep talking to him. I can get through to him and maybe, just maybe, he'll turn himself in and everything will be right in the world..." The blonde woman was silent for a long time, just switching her glances from Ruby, to Blake, to Weiss, then back to Ruby. After a long stretch of silence, a single finger was shoved into the shorter woman's face. 

"No more lies. You will tell me  _ every  _ time you come here. And what he does. Understood?" 

"I promise."

"You'd better..." A sigh escaped Yang's mouth as she ran a hand through her hair and shook her head. Ruby was quick to wrap her in a tight hug. She felt the strong comfort of her sister's arms wrap around her and another sigh escaped her lips. "You staying here for a bit longer?"

"Yeah, what are you going to do?" 

"I'm going for a drink..." With that, Yang left the room, her team following her lead. When they arrived back in the kitchen, Yang sternly said, "Listen up, Torchwick."

"Oh, here we go..." 

"You do anything to my baby sister, and you'll need a lot more of those devices for your body. Understand?" 

"Crystal..."

"Good..." And with that, Yang turned and stormed out of the front door that she kicked in earlier. Following her was the rest of her team, but Jaune was not with them. A quick glance showed her that Jaune was looking for something. 

"What are you looking for, Jaune?" 

"A fashion sense?" Roman chimed in as he gingerly got off the table and stretched his back. 

"One! It's Pumpkin Pete! Secondly, I dropped my Scroll somewhere-" Before he could finish his sentence, Neo was sitting on the counter nearby, her leg crossed over her knee with the scroll in question in hand, waving in front of his face with a wink. Slowly, Jaune took the device and quietly said his thanks before leaving with the rest of the group. Ruby just shook her head and sighed. Her life had become so complicated; just a year ago she was being launched off a cliff into a Grimm infested forest… it seemed so long ago now...

Because now she's the personal mechanic to an international crime lord in order to make sure his legs work. So much for normal knees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus begins the inferno of Project: Trash Fire. 
> 
> What else can I say, I am trash and I live for trash pairings. 
> 
> Special thanks to StreetAngelJ for proofreading and editing.
> 
> If you enjoyed, please leave a Kudo! If you already have, leave a comment! I love reading them and I love replying to them. This story is also posted on FF.net under the same name. I also have a Tumblr, (AngryFaceWritings) Come say hi! 
> 
> And as always, thank you for taking time out of your busy days to read my slice of trash!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Canada Day!

Luckily, the front door and its frame were not badly damaged by her sister's sudden intrusion into Roman's home. Some heavy wood glue would keep it in place until Ruby and Neo could be properly replace it since Ruby has not tested out how much he could actually lift using her device. "Well, that was exciting..." Roman said as he threw his shirt back on and was beginning to button it back up. "I was thinking chicken linguini for dinner, what about you, Red?" he asked as he watched Ruby apply the glue and duct tape to keep it in place as it cured.

"That sounds good, Torchwick," Ruby mentioned off-handedly. She was just glad her sister did not drag her away kicking and screaming, or else she would have to explain why she was staying with a master criminal for so long to Ozpin and, most likely, her father. To top it off, her mind was throwing things around in her head, and not all of them were good. When she was done with her quick fix, she watched Roman as he walked around the kitchen, already boiling water and letting the noodles cook as he prepared the sauce and meat for their meal.

In the time Ruby had known him, she found out quite a lot about the man that not many others know. For one, he was a good cook. Every meal she had while she stayed here was cooked by hand and mainly made from scratch or quality ingredients; Imported noodles and spices from Mistral, wine from Atlas, fruits and oils from Vacuo…  The man was a culinary master. As he sprinkled and chopped herbs for their meal, Neo had been sitting on the counter, scroll in hand as she typed and viewed things.

Ruby had learned that the smaller woman always had her face glued to the screen whenever she was not currently doing something. All the gossip about celebrities or a new drama show that came out, Neo was one of the first to soak it up and talk about it online. Ruby was reminded that they were just like normal people, outside their preferred professions. The cook and the social media addict were the same master criminal and right-hand woman, which threw the young Huntress for a loop when she first realised it.

Ruby made herself busy with her large scroll, looking over blueprints for the next batch of upgrades for her weapon as well as upgrades for her team's weapons when the plate was placed in front of her. The smell alone made her mouth water as she put the device to the side and grabbed her fork. Neo sat down at the table while Roman handed out drinks. Red wine for himself and Neo, while Ruby got milk. "Sorry about my sister," Ruby began, breaking the silence of their meal.

"It’s fine. I'm sure it would have been worse if she found out any later than she did," Roman said as he rolled his pasta around his fork to make a neat little ball to deposit it into his mouth, "besides, she only threatened me with even more crippling injuries, not death, so I've got that going, right Neo? Neo. Neo!" The man snapped his fingers in front of the woman, who had not touched her meal since they had begun, still doing something on her scroll.

She looked up from her scroll and rolled her eyes at the man. "Could you put that away for five minutes while you eat?" Neo gave a theatrical sigh as she slipped the device into her shirt and began to eat the meal Roman had prepared. When Ruby first witnessed their actions with each other, she was sure she had died and gone to some bizarre alternate world, but now it was all just par for the course. The meal had continued with little small talk, Neo refusing to give up what she was reading before he interrupted her to eat. He mentioned that they needed to be more careful now that Ruby's team knew about them; to which she replied with a noncommittal shrug.

When the meal was over, Roman cleared the table and began to do the dishes after denying Ruby the chance to do it first, just like every time before that. Neo had retreated to her room in the house as Ruby decided to use this time to actually get some school work done in her own room.

This was the same room she was once held prisoner in and designed the device that made Torchwick's legs work again. Over the months, she had turned it into a more personal room for herself, with a small stash of clothes as well as books on anything she could ever need in a bookshelf sitting in the corner.

Sitting at the desk, she pulled a few textbooks out to start studying but found it impossible to focus on the words in front of her. A single thought was going through her head, and it was Jaune's words about her and Torchwick dating. The concept of them having a relationship was the stupidest thing that Jaune had ever said; but for whatever reason, she could not get the idea of it out of her head. Sure, he was a good cook, and he was a kind person when he was not holding people hostage during Dust robberies. To top it all off, his green eyes almost glowed when the sun hit them right, and he was handsome-

Ruby realised she had just thought of Roman Torchwick as handsome. She felt her own face heat up and slammed her forehead onto the desk just to try and shake the images from her mind into order. Doing so, she realised that the sun had gone down and it was late into the evening now. She had spent hours just sitting there thinking about Torchwick in ways she really should not have, considering what they both were. Getting up from her chair, Ruby left her room to fill up her empty water bottle that sat next to her bed and prepare to go to sleep when she noticed a faint glow coming from the living room down the stairs.

Investigating it revealed that Torchwick laying in his favourite recliner asleep; while the TV was showing a man talking about all the different things a kitchen knife could do as he sliced tomatoes so thin she could see through them. Ruby had installed the wireless charging pad in the chair so he could just sit there while the device recharged in order to reduce discomfort. Seeing him sleeping like that, so peaceful and relaxed, it stirred feelings inside of her she really did not want to feel.

She could have just left and never came back after the first time. She did not have to put all those upgrades in and stitch him closed, or install hardware for comfort and convenience. She did not have to do all these things for him but she did. She stayed and talked with him, she watched him shift from a criminal to a misunderstood person in her own mind the longer she stayed with him. After everything they had shared with each other, she was worried about what would happen to him if he was ever caught and thrown into prison.

She cared for him.

Gently, she pulled a blanket off the side of the couch and laid it across Torchwick's sleeping form and turned off the TV. The room fell into deep shadows as the light from the moon cast sharp lines across his body. Slowly, gently, Ruby reached out and pushed the small lock of orange hair out of his face so she could appreciate it a little bit more. She stopped herself before she could cross a line that she could never come back from. Quickly and quietly, she ran back to her room and closed the door.

Throwing herself onto the bed, Ruby stared at the ceiling as her brain tried to make sense of everything. Images and words filled her mind, and she did not want any of it; but the more she denied it, the stronger it became. With no other options, she voiced her concerns to herself, making the matter true and solid. "I like Roman Torchwick..." She slapped her face with both her hands and pushed into her eyes, trying to see if this was a dream or not. Sliding her hands down and pulling her face with the movement, she groaned as she realised that this was real life and there was nothing she could do about it.

The only thing she needed was for Yang to _NEVER_ find out about this. She just hoped her older sister was not getting herself into trouble, because if this was how she reacted to this whole situation now, she never wanted to know what she would do if she found out about this crush.

* * *

 

A loud screech assaulted her ears and tore her from her sleep. Pain rocked Yang's brain as she tried to sit up to see what had woken her so suddenly, only for her to hit her forehead on something as soon as she tried to move. Her hands hit something else when she tried to hold her throbbing head, sending even more pain throughout her body. With blurry eyes, she tried to look around the darkness she was surrounded with before someone grabbed her ankles. She barely had a moment to think about it before she was dragged out from the darkness and into the blinding light.

With a cry of pain, Yang curled up into a ball and held her hands over her face to block the painful rays of light from her sensitive eyes. "Thank you, Nora," she heard Weiss say from somewhere nearby.

"No problem, Weiss!" The ever cheerful voice of Nora assaulted her ears, adding even more to the pain in her mind as she groaned and rolled around on the carpet, trying to will the headache to leave her body. The ginger's heavy steps began to fade away as the door to their room closed and she was left with silence before Weiss cleared her throat and used her foot to spin Yang around to better face her.

"Good morning, Yang." Oh, she did not sound happy. Slowly, Yang began to pull her hands away from her face and strain her eyes to focus on Weiss, who was standing next to her bed with her arms folded across her chest. She was, indeed, not happy. Yang tried to return the morning greeting, but her throat felt like she had eaten an entire field of cotton, so all that came out was a strained croak. Yang tried to sit up to get a better look at where she was.

From what she could tell, Yang had been pulled out from under Blake's bed. The Faunus woman was just sitting on her bed reading, as always. Slowly and gingerly, Yang pulled herself into a sitting position and cleared her throat a few times before speaking finally. "Morning?" Even she winced at the sound of her own voice. "I take it woke you up when I came back?" Yang did not even know how she made it back to the school, let alone the dorm.

"You could say that. First, you stumbled in at three in the morning and belched for a solid two minutes. Then, you tried to get up to your bed and failed four times, falling on your ass each time before deciding to say, quite loudly I might add, fuck it, and crawled under Blake's bed and proceeded to snore louder than an Ursa using a chainsaw. To add to it all, your cab driver followed you all the way here since you apparently spent all of your money getting drunk and I had to pay the twelve thousand lien fare since he drove you all the way here because the airships were not going to be starting for hours. So yes, you did wake me up."

Yang just groaned and put her head in her hands. "I am so sorry, I'll pay you back, I promise." She felt like such a bad person now, she had decided to drown all her frustrations with booze after learning about Ruby's part-time double life as Roman Torchwick's mechanic, or something. Her mind was still trying to piece things together. The heiress just sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of her nose before shaking her head.

"It’s fine, I'm just happy you managed to get back in one piece. Although I would recommend a better way to work out your problems than partying all night. Now go get a shower, you smell terrible and you look like a horror movie." Yang nodded and turned slowly to push herself to her knees before using the bedside table to help herself to her feet. She wobbled slightly before her strength returned and she could slowly walk around the room to collect her bath stuff to take to the shower room.

While she collected her things, a gentle chime filled the room, causing Weiss to cry out in agony. "And could you answer your scroll? It's been going off for the last hour and a half!" Before Yang could try and find the device, Blake was holding it for her.

"Come on, I need to catch a shower too." Yang thanked her for the help as the two of them made their way down the dorm halls towards the shower room in their building. Blake had a small bag that had her shampoo and body wash as well as a luffa hanging off her wrist. Yang, on the other hand, had a small basket filled with the various hair care products she uses to keep her blonde locks in relative check. As they walked, her scroll went off again and she finally checked it.

Opening the device, she saw a long chain of texts from a number she did not recognise; each of them asking if she got back home alright and if she was okay in increasingly worrying tones. She read through them a few times before finally replying; obviously, she gave her number out to someone, and they were just making sure she was okay. No harm in that.

_"Hey, I'm still alive. Sorry about that."_

_"Oh, thank god. We were starting to get worried."_

Yang had to read that last one a few times just to make sure she was not misreading it.

_"We?"_

_"You don't remember?"_

_"Nope."_

_"Maybe we should remind her?"_

_"Yes, lets. ;)"_

A second chat bubble in a different colour popped up in the text message, and Yang realised that she was in a group chat, and not a simple one to one message. Just what had she done last night? Suddenly, a picture was sent to her scroll and a small bar quickly filled up with the download progress before the image filled the screen. Freezing mid-stride, she forced herself to blink a few times just to make sure she was not still drunk and seeing things.

On it was a very intoxicated photo of herself, lilac eyes half closed with a smile on her face. On either side of her body were the twins from Junior's club, their lips on her neck, leaving smears of red and white along her skin. Touching her own neck and face, she could feel the make-up still on her body, making her face flush slightly realising that she was walking around in public with that still on her. Their pale green eyes were shining with mischief as they both looked at the camera that one of them was holding. Apparently, Yang was looking at the picture long enough for Blake to walk back up and take a look over her shoulder.

"Oh, wow, I guess that explains the makeup."

"Yup..." Yang shook her head and lowered the device. "I, Yang Xiao Long, got with twins."

"Congrats, let's get going before more people stare at you..." With a gentle push from the feline Faunus, Yang began to walk towards their destination. "How did you even manage that?"

"I don't know, I can't remember anything about last night, but there's picture evidence at least."

"Why is that important?"

Yang just looked at her with a confused look on her face.

"Why is that important? Blake, it's twins. TWINS! Every person fantasizes about getting with twins, and I did it! I have lived as few dared to dream! They will look at me as if I were a god!" Her rant was cut off by her throat seizing up and sending her into a coughing fit, as her body reminded her that she was still hungover from the events of the night before. When she finally relaxed, Blake just raised her eyebrow and rolled her eyes.

"Right, whatever you say, Yang."

"Do you have a crush, Blake?" Yang asked with a smile as they finally entered the women's shower room in their building. "Or someone you're eyeing up?" It was nearly the size of the gym, but it was hard to tell since rows and rows of lockers, toilet and showers stalls filled the room with their contents.

"No, I'm not really looking for one anyways." The way Blake had said that and how she hesitated about it sent a red flag in Yang's mind. In her own time, maybe her partner would come around and talk to her about it, or maybe she just has not found the right person yet. Whichever the case was, Yang would be there. Shoving their clothes into their lockers, they began to walk with their towels wrapped around their bodies to preserve their dignity until they got to the shower stalls, even if Yang felt mad and upset that she was still wearing her bow.

As they passed the row of sinks, Yang caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She looked like she had eaten a clown, with red and minty light green lipstick smeared across her mouth and leading down her neck. As terrible as it looked, it sent a small shiver of excitement through her body. She wondered what she had done to earn such treatment from the twins at the club, she felt bad now that she did not even know their names, but that was an easy fix.

The time it took to wash off the night of partying was relatively short compared to the time it took to wash her hair properly. No less than three different bottles of hair care products were used on a given day, she had a schedule to maintain to keep her hair light and bouncy. Weiss always complained about her taking too long in the shower and back at Patch, even Ruby and their dad got mad at her for hogging up all the hot water washing her golden mane, but it was all worth it.

Fresh and clean, Yang made her way back to her locker with a bounce in her step. The hot water did wonders for her headache and with the promise of a hearty breakfast in the next few minutes, she was already feeling like her old self. Blake was already mostly dressed when Yang opened her locker and saw another text notification on her scroll. Opening it, she saw the same group chat with the sisters, which she quickly renamed to **Twins.**

_"Think we broke her?"_

_"Maybe..."_

Yang just smiled as she began to type out her response. _"Not quite, but it would make for a good wallpaper."_

_"It's already mine..."_

Yang's eyebrow raised as she ran her tongue across her lips, suddenly finding them dry.

 _"So, what's your schedule look like this week?"_ one of them asked.

_"School..."_

_"Lame. What about next weekend?"_

_"I should be clear."_

_"Great, it's a date then."_

With a grin, she was about to tell Blake about her date when she noticed the raven-haired woman was no longer there. Guess she took longer than she thought she did. Oh well, at least she had something good happen to her this weekend after how it had begun. Now all she needed was food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And now, a word from my editor:
> 
> Editor’s Note: After much debate, research and comparison with real economic systems we have reached a consensus on the value of a Lien. Similar to estimating the value of the Yen vs. the Dollar we went with 100L(ien) roughly equaling $1. Since Lien cards look to be similar to prepaid credit cards, having color-coding and magnetic strips and values less than $10 aren’t really worth the hassle, smaller denominations (when used at all) use coins called Sient which come in a variety of values just like other coins. We figured that establishing this standard would help with immersion, both for Angry Face’s work and my own. After all, Qrow dropping TWO cards down to pay off a 160,000L bar tab makes it obvious that a Lien isn’t a huge monetary value….
> 
> I would also like to apologise for my absence lately, been hit with a little bit of hitch with my writing and such. Life suck and so on and so forth. So, yeah, sorry about that. 
> 
> If you enjoyed, please leave a Kudo. If you already have, leave a comment, I love reading them and I love replying to them. This story is also posted on FF.net under the same name. If you read over there as well, come show your support! I also have a Tumblr (AngryFaceWritings) So come say hi! 
> 
> And as always, thank you for taking time out of your busy days to read my slice of trash.


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